A little bit about our background. My wife and I were travelling with two other couples ( all of us were in our mid 50's and are experienced cruisers). We boarded the Noordam after spending a few days prior to the cruise exploring the Florida Keys. One of the highlights of our trip was the air-boat ride in the everglades the day before the cruise. We stayed at the Ramada Inn in Ft Lauderdale the night before and we were able to stock up on water and soft drinks which we packaged in a number of canvas bags with our room numbers on them. All the bags were delivered without any loss.

The Check In was a bit problematic and very slow due to a problem with the shore based computers linking with ships computers. The delay while understandable as the ship was not in its usual berthing spot was frustrating as the wait seemed endless and no one was advising the reason for the delay. We thought this might not be a good omen for the rest of the trip but we were completely wrong. Our voyage was our best yet on any HAL ship as far as Service, Crew spirit and all around gracious hospitality went.

We last travelled on the Noordam in the Spring of 2008 for an extended 24 day voyage with the same group of friends. At the time, while the ship was fine and the food was good, there was a sense that the staff seemed a bit tired or not quite pulling in the same direction. Nothing to prevent us from travelling on the Noordam again but not quite meeting our expectations on Service and food quality. Several our of our fellow travellers had problems with shore excursions and not getting some of the spa services which were contracted. HAL staff did follow up but at times it was a very frustrating experience. Read more